Electrodes implanted into the cockroach's nervous system make the insect obey the commands of the owner - a man with a control panel.
To demonstrate its neurobiological achievements, the American company Backyard Brains used a set of microcircuits borrowed from a toy insect robot HEXBUG Inchworm, and several cockroaches of the species Blaberus discoidalis and Aptera fusca. The participants and spectators of the experiment were students of the University of Grand Valley (USA).
The chips, which the experimental cockroach was forced to carry on the barks, made it turn right and left depending on the signal from the remote control, blocking natural signals to change direction from its antennae.
The system, however, requires serious improvement: recalcitrant test subjects obeyed orders only in 25% of cases. The practical application of the technology also remains in question: the developers find it difficult to say how else you can use it, in addition to demonstration purposes. In theory, a cyborg cockroach equipped with a video camera could, for example, look for people in collapsed buildings, but in reality its operating time will be very limited due to the small supply of batteries that it can carry.
The students were shown another Backyard Brains product, this time ready for production. The SpikerBox device, reminiscent of the principle of action of medieval torture devices, allows you to study the activity of neurons on a severed cockroach leg. In defense of the authors of the device, we can say that the affected insects are able to regenerate limbs.